


Where the Drifts Get Deeper

by Meadow Lion (Meadow_Lion)



Category: Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: Canon Gay Relationship, Canon LGBTQ Male Character, Christmas, M/M, Romance, Shakespearean references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-26
Updated: 2007-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-19 05:23:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/197378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meadow_Lion/pseuds/Meadow%20Lion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was an <a href="http://sa-slash.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://sa-slash.livejournal.com/"><b>sa_slash</b></a> holiday exchange gift, and Hanschen and Ernst themselves exchange gifts within it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the Drifts Get Deeper

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lauzzie Marie](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lauzzie+Marie).



> I got the title from Tori Amos' "[Winter](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/toriamos/winter.html)." The lovely [](http://raisingirl99.livejournal.com/profile)[**raisingirl99**](http://raisingirl99.livejournal.com/) performed beta duty; any mistakes are mine alone.

His mouth open in delighted awe, Ernst gazed up at the blurred white expanse of sky above the naked-limbed forest. A fresh snow was falling, pure and delicate, gleaming in the midwinter sun. Flakes curled on his extended tongue before trickling into his throat.

"Such a childish reaction to the snowfall. It's not as if this is your first."

Ernst snapped his head down and mouth closed. He felt his icy cheeks flush, but Hanschen did not appear truly stern. In fact, Hanschen only held his exasperated look one moment more, and then gave Ernst a wink.

"Hanschen, you mock me so," Ernst sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if you like me at all."

Settling his hands on Ernst's shoulders, Hanschen clucked his tongue. "You shouldn't take anything so seriously. Even me."

The warmth of Hanschen's touch, through layer upon layer of cloth, still made Ernst tremble, still made him want such dangerous and startling things. He stared up from beneath his lashes. "But how could I not? Mustn't love be serious?"

"Only if you never want it to breathe, to live," Hanschen said with perfect authority, and shook him gently, using the movement to draw close for a kiss. He coaxed Ernst's lips apart and pressed in his tongue.

Each time they kissed, Ernst felt as though Hanschen were searching for something in the well of his mouth. Each time, he opened himself to the exploration in the hope that they could find it together. He brought his hands to Hanschen's face but could not feel properly through his lambskin gloves. He fumbled trying to tug them from his fingers, until Hanschen broke the kiss.

"What foolishness is this, now?"

Ernst lifted his hands helplessly. "I am clumsy as ever."

"So I see." Watching him closely, Hanschen grasped Ernst's left hand in both of his own and raised it to lips swollen and shiny from their kiss. He closed his teeth over a loosened fingertip of the glove, held it with the clench of his strong jaw as he pulled that finger free.

Ernst could not say why the shiver that small act sent through his body was so sharp, like the first gusts of a northern wind. The force of it threatened to pitch him to the ground while Hanschen drew centimeter after centimeter of the glove off his left hand, then the right. His fingers ought to have been cold, but the heat of Hanschen's breath and his dark eyes lit flames in Ernst's chest and below. He wanted to get closer yet to the fire.

When Hanschen let the right glove fall into the deepening snow, Ernst tried to embrace him again.

Instead, Hanschen stepped back. He stripped off his own gloves abruptly, by only the usual hand-on-hand method, and reached into his coat pockets. Withdrawing a compact brown parcel, he offered it to Ernst. "I've brought you this, for Christmas. It's merely a trifle, nothing you need consider significant."

The frost began licking Ernst's skin, soaking into him. He accepted the parcel. "But, Hanschen . . . "

A disgusted sound escaped Hanschen's lips, and he turned aside so that Ernst could not see his expression. "Really, Ernst, don't get worked up. Just open it."

"All right." Ernst untied the bow of twine and slipped it into his pocket. He unfolded the paper flaps to reveal a leather-bound tome. Its soft gold title inlay read, _The Merchant of Venice: A Play in Five Acts_. The wrapping fluttered from his grasp as he breathed a quiet "Oh."

"You're so fond of books, and I thought I recalled your having mentioned this Shakespeare fellow," Hanschen said, still facing away, his voice oddly restrained. "I came across the book and assumed you must have it already --"

"No! My uncle once let me borrow his copy, and I adored it, but I've never had a copy for myself." Ernst stroked the spine. Only when he let the book ease open did he realize there was a deep crimson ribbon sewn to the binding, and it had been tucked securely between pages near the beginning of the play. "Have you read this, Hanschen?"

Finally, hands shoved into his coat pockets, Hanschen turned toward him again. His smirk was familiar but not as believable as usual somehow. "I glanced through the first act and grew bored with all its talk of debts."

"That is a topic throughout, but listen to this passage from Bassanio." It lay on the very pages that had been caught by the ribbon. Forgetting the cold, Ernst tapped his bare fingers there and read, "'To you, Antonio, I owe the most, in money and in love, and from your love I have a warranty to unburden all my plots and purposes.'"

"Precisely. I don't know how you can stand it. Let me take it back." Hanschen pulled at the book. Snow fell on the pages, fat, white drops moistening the text.

Ernst held fast. "I would never so lightly give up what you've offered."

The wind swirled between them as they stood, each clasping an opposite edge of the book. Inscrutable and silent, Hanschen stared, and Ernst would not drop his gaze.

"There's another speech, later in the text --" Ernst began.

"Is it equally dull?"

"I'll read it, and you may decide." He had to look down to turn the pages, although Hanschen still had not released his grip on the cover. "Here. Antonio says, 'I dare be bound again, my soul upon the forfeit, that your lord will never more break faith advisedly.'"

"That's something of an improvement," Hanschen said. The frown creasing his lips gave Ernst an idea.

He didn't know how it had come to him, as unexpectedly as Hanschen's touch always was. But he didn't want to deny either of them. He tugged at the book and, when it was freed, put it into his own coat pocket. Then, catching Hanschen's chilled hands, he pressed a kiss to them.

Hanschen appeared frozen. Although his lips parted, he did not speak.

Breathing slowly, Ernst pushed Hanschen's index fingers between his own lips, across his tongue as he closed his eyes. He sucked them curiously. He could taste ink and chalk and the crisp air, and he licked his way past all that. He licked until he tasted skin; until Hanschen's fingers slid so deep that his knuckles indented Ernst's cheeks; until he tasted the fire.

"Ernst." Hanschen's voice cracked as though years had been lost. "Do you know what you're doing to me?"

He withdrew Hanschen's fingers gradually and dropped his hands. He wanted to brush away the snow wetly clumping Hanschen's eyelashes. "Is it not an insignificant present?"

With a little smile and shake of his head, Hanschen said, "Always so serious. I really don't know how you stand it."

"I'm still learning, myself." Ernst stepped forward, cupping Hanschen's surprisingly warm cheeks.

Hanschen burrowed damp hands inside Ernst's coat against his chest, the heat once more stirring that delicious wanting. The world was hushed with anticipation, but Ernst was not going to hold his breath.

A few snowflakes blew into their mouths just before they kissed. When his tongue met Hanschen's again, he understood what it was to melt into someone.

  


\- end - 

  



End file.
